When swimming, snorkeling or scuba diving, dive boots are often worn to protect the feet from injury on foreign objects, as well as for warmth in colder waters. Dive boots are shaped to be worn together with swim fins or flippers of the type having a toe entry pocket and means for heel attachment, such as a strap or heel cup.
Entry into the water from the shore is difficult while wearing swim fins, particularly in a heavy surf. The diver usually enters the water on foot, carrying the swim fins and then puts them on after negotiating the shallow water. Entry on foot is difficult, and sometimes dangerous, due to foreign objects in the water, which are often slippery. The diver may encounter rocks covered with barnacles and algae, seaweed, shells, and other dangerous debris such as broken glass. Prior art dive boots normally are made with synthetic rubber soles having corrugated bottoms or treads. While these offer protection to the feet and are puncture resistant, the soles of prior art dive boots are notably slippery in spite of the corrugated treads. Also the rubber soles are flexible and produce fatigue when used with fins for a long time.
Wading shoes or wading boots are also known, which offer improved traction on slippery surfaces. Wading shoes or boots are available with felt soles having an instep and heel configured in the manner of an ordinary walking shoe. The soles of prior art wading shoes have a peripheral rim extending beyond the toe piece of the upper boot member and are not suitable for use as diving boots.
A prior art dive boot is disclosed in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,913,592 to Moore. This boot uses a sole pad of flexible and compressible material, such as natural rubber. Other patents have disclosed wading shoes or boots with various types of soles, including U.S. Pat. No. 3,574,958 to Martuch describing a boot with a sole of inner-woven matted polymeric material; U.S. Pat. No. 1,877,080 to Teshima with a woven sole of Japanese hemp palm fiber or manila fiber, U.S. Pat. No. 1,742,176 with a rubber sponge sole and 1877 patent to Clayton describing a canvas shoe with cork sole.
It would be desirable to have a dive boot which especially useful both for walking on slippery surfaces when entering the water, as well as to be used with a swim fin for a dive boot. It would also be desirable to have a dive boot which reduces fatigue when swimming with fins over the boot.
Accordingly, one object of the invention is to provide an improved dive boot both for walking on slippery surfaces and for wearing with a swim fin.
Another object of the invention is to provide an improved dive boot which reduces fatigue when worn with swim fins.